At 02:34 PM 1/12/99 -0800, you wrote:
>I think that an 8 year old would be best off with a machine with CD-ROM
>capability. And a good size stack of reference disks, including
>Encyclopedia Brittanica, atlases, and several collections of literature.
Uh-oh, here goes Uncle Roger again...
There are a lot of *really* good educational programs out there nowadays.
Davidson, Learning Company, Br0derbund are some good names. They can
really help kids get ahead. My niece is already reading at 4yo thanks to
Interactive Reading Journey. (Not a record by any stretch, but no one is
really pushing her.)
I could go on for hours, but I won't...
>There should also be WWW access, preferably with at least minimal
>graphics capability.
The younger the kid, the more they need graphics capability. Teenagers
don't really need it, no matter how much they beg for it (they just want to
visit whitehouse.com).
>In the PC world, that would call for 386SX with VGA video, and DOS 3.10
Or a Mac IIci, both of which will require access to older software.
Pentium or PowerPC is required for much of the good stuff you see at places
like ChumpUSA.
Used parts can be put together into a low-end/slow pentium for probably a
lot less than $500, but that's still more than $10 + shipping. And for a
dedicated task like learning a bit of programming, playing with some
graphics, and a few games, a C64/Atari 800/Apple II would be fine.
Also, BASIC, as maligned as it is, is useful for learning; I applied my
BASIC experience to make learning PERL a snap. (And BASIC is very useful
in its own right.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California
http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Tue Jan 12 1999 - 18:24:03 GMT